Since the end of confinement, hairdressing salons have been overwhelmed with requests for appointments. Customers and hairdressers seem to have overcome the fear of Covid-19 but not necessarily that of the aftermath.
Couldn’t believe the hair salons were closed for two months. This Tuesday, this salon rue de la Convention in Paris (15th), like so many others, customers keep coming. Telephone calls, the clicking of scissors and the howling of hair dryers signal the return of activity. While the Covid-19 responsible for more than 26,000 deaths in France at the beginning of May is still circulating, protective measures have been put in place to limit infections. Exit the reception room, access to sanitary facilities, as well as the magazine or drink offer. The lounge door remains open at all times and customers are requested to enter only with their own protective mask.
Among them, Julien, thirty, is delighted to have had an appointment so quickly. “During these two months of confinement I tried to trim my beard but as my hair is too rare I preferred to give up, he laughs. Until now my boss organized telephone meetings but now he wants that we use video. So as a sales person I have to be presentable, and it’s nice to go to the hairdresser!”
New working conditions
Diligently trimming another client’s haircut, Alice, a young salon employee, slightly rolls up her goggles over her mask. “I’m happy to be back at work. I feel that customers are more relaxed and less impatient than before, maybe because there are no more appointments aftershe supposes. On the first day of deconfinement, I was anxious to work with the mask but I already got used to it. On the other hand, the weight of the glasses hurts me, and my hands are irritated from disinfecting them all day.“
Added to these inconveniences is a marked increase in the workload. “It’s the rushsays Inès, the head of the show. Normally we have between 25 and 30 customers a day, but right now we have around fifty!“To meet this high demand, Inès and her three employees work an extra hour while taking care to disinfect tools and chairs between each cut.
“We will never make up for the loss of turnover in March and Aprilshe breathes. On the other hand, the price of the services has been increased by €2 in order to compensate for the measures taken for the déconfinement.“A way to limit the trade show’s deficit, which for the moment has no visibility beyond the next two weeks. A far from marginal price increase. Christophe Doré, president of the National Union of hairstyle (UNEC) explained to Le Figaro that on the whole the professionals applied “a price increase of 2 to 5€, even if some take much more“.
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